David Brodbeck wrote: > > You could start as a lower class trailer trash kid, go to work in an > auto plant, and lift yourself into the middle class. If you were good, > you could even climb into the white collar ranks and eventually retire > comfortably with a nice pension, a boat, and a cabin up north. > That's no longer the case.
I know somebody who was a special ed student in a largely black school district near Detroit. He's functionally illiterate, has all the spending traits that you associate with the socioeconomically disadvantaged, go to rent-to-own shops, payday loans, etc. He got into driving big trucks about three years ago. Had some crappy OTR jobs the first year, but now he makes $45k a year, working four hours a day and sleeping in the truck the other four. Goes home every night. Has medical insurance and will get a pension if he stays there long enough. (he makes about three runs a day moving parts between car factories, sleeps between runs) $45k is solidly middle class when you live in a state where $125k buys a decent three bedroom house. If he can do it, just about anybody can.
